A couple of years back I went to a small Stargate Atlantis convention and entered into the costume contest. I made a dress of Teyla's and entered. I even performed the song she sang in it. I came second overall.
I made the dress and jewellery from scratch and even got a wig.
I didn't know I was cosplaying at the time... I thought I was just making a costume to enter into a contest and have some fun.

Being from Perth, aka. the most isolated city in the world, there are not many conventions here... and they are not that big. From the photos I've seen, cosplay is not that big (people do dress up BUT there are less OMG costumes... and a lot that are bought online from party shops).

I am a KEEN lover of sewing and creating costumes. I have been sewing since I was 3, and for the last 4 and a half years, I have been sewing costumes for stock photography on deviantart and modeling them.
In a few ways, it is very similar to cosplay, except I haven't really based any of my designs on actual characters. But the premise is that I create an outfit, find its "character", take photos of me being the model in it, and upload them onto deviantart so that artists can use it in either photomanipulations or as a reference material.http://kirilee.deviantart.com - click to see what I mean.

Anywho - my plan is to make my own costume to comic con. As it is my first/second time cosplaying, I wanted to do something that would be recognizable but would also not get me into too much hot water if I didn't do it perfectly to match the character.
I decided to dress up as the tardis. But, not your average style. I plan on doing a 1950/poofy/ almost-slightly-princess tardis based on the new series doctor who tardis (yeh... there are a few variations to date).

Okay, after that long spiel, I look forward to getting to know you guys and hopefully get some tips.